The findings point to the neglect, apathy and chronic corruption on the one hand and excessive government pressure and interference on the other.

India Today TV's investigative team have spoken to many educators in the state

At Hajipur in Vaishali district, for example, India Today TV's investigative team met a full-time beautician who confessed she had been involved in checking Class 12 answer sheets.

Lalita Chaudhry runs a boutique and beauty parlour and is designated as a teacher on official records, she revealed. It all started when an acquaintance showed her as staff on paper at a school in Hajipur, Chaudhry told India Today TV.

'He opened the school and assigned my name as a teacher,' she admitted.

'But no classes are hold. I was never called in to take a class. I would only check up to 50 copies,' Chaudhry acknowledged.

Lalita Chaudhry, who runs a boutique and beauty parlour, is designated as a teacher

That was just tip of the iceberg. At the women's MDDM College in Muzaffarpur, a test-checking centre for this year's intermediate exams, principal Mamta Rani disclosed what was wrong in the system that failed around 64 percent of Class 12 students this year 'Circumstances under which exam papers were checked are responsible.

'More than half of our teachers for 10+2 were on a strike to demand equal pay for equal work. They were pressured to call off their strike and deliver the results,' she said.

She explained, 'Teachers were under too much of pressure to check papers quickly. Someone who could see 30 sheets a day, was given 60. That obviously generated mistakes.'

Police arrest 13 Bihar students caught using Bluetooth devices to cheat in exams in 2015

Embarrassed after a footage of toppers, who were unable to answer basic questions went viral last year, the Nitish government ordered tough measures to curb cheating.

However, the direction from the CM appears to be far from ideal.

'Examiners are scared after what happened last year. If they are generous, the test-papers could be sent for re-checking. That's why they are inclined towards giving giving less marks,' Rani said.

Incompetent teachers also seemed to have played their role in ruining careers. Dr Narayan Das, principal of Hajipur's Vaishali Mahila College and an evaluation director himself, admitted that middle-school teachers were given Class 12 papers to check.

'Designated teachers were absent. Thus middle-school teachers were called in because of which a lot of blunders happened,' he said.

Principal Mamta Rani disclosed what was wrong in the system that failed around 64 percent of Class 12 students this year

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'If someone deserved 10 out of 10, he got a zero. We could spot injustice, but could not do anything. Our job is limited to only scrutinising the aggregate.'

A Physics professor at Muzaffarpur's Dr Jagannath Mishra College, Prem Kumar disclosed the workload he and his colleagues had been burdened with during evaluation.

'I believe 80, 90 or 100 copies were being cleared when no one is capable of completing more than 50,' Kumar claimed. 'All this was playing out right in front of your eyes, right?' asked the reporter. 'Right there,' Kumar replied.